After we arrive at the hotel, we follow Bones up to the ninth floor. We step out of the elevator and four men move with him, their hands on their weapons in their holsters as if ready for battle. He opens the room with a key card and stands back gesturing for us to go inside first. Heather goes in first followed by myself, Killian, and lastly Carter as he glances around, his eyes clouded with apprehension.
Killian immediately finds the bar, and begins pouring drinks, while Heather moves to me. I wrap my arm around her waist, holding her close as Bones introduces us to the four armed men.
“This is Dante, Jacob, Milo, and Joshua. They will be posted outside your door. No one other than my family will be permitted entrance under any circumstances. Anywhere you go, my men will follow.”
Kill hands out glasses of whiskey to us as well as Bones. I’m assuming his men are not allowed to drink while working.
“When we go to look for Jedediah, they will be with us. These four men will be with you until I deem it safe to reassign them. Understood?”
He looks directly at Heather and waits for a response.
“Yes.”
I’m relieved when she doesn’t argue, but I also know she realizes the danger she’s in now. Maybe that’s why she’s not fighting it.
“Has the property been checked?” Carter asks which doesn’t surprise me because he normally conducts surveillance before we enter a building.
“Of course.” Bones says before adding, “We will be ready to leave at seven.”
He hands Killian a keycard.
“Call me if you need anything.”
The guards are quiet, not speaking a single word. Killian glances at me with an arched brow, and I shrug my shoulders. We’ve never had a security detail before, maybe they are supposed to be seen but not heard.
Bones stares at his men, a glare in his gaze and speaks in a sharp tone.
“You may fucking go. Outside, to your post.”
Once they leave their boss follows suit and exits our room. I have the strong feeling that if his employees don’t do exactly as he says, it’s a real problem.
“This is weird.” Heather says, not so much as a complaint but merely an observation, and I can’t say I disagree.
I call room service and order dinner for all of us. She doesn’t have much of an appetite right now, but I want to make sure she has enough energy for tonight.
Heather rubs her hands together excitedly.
“I hope we find him tonight.”
“I think we all agree, Tesoro, but so far he has hidden well, so we know it might not be quick. I just want you to be prepared.”
I walk over to the sofa and sit between Carter and Killian and motion for Heather to join us.
She comes over and I pull her onto my lap and lay her on top of us, a long sigh escapes from her lips. Killian has her legs ontop of him and he pulls her shoes off her feet, tossing them onto the floor. She has her head on Carter's lap and looks up at him with a soft smile on her lips until it fades suddenly.
“Can we talk about the elephant in the room?” She blurts out. My brothers appear as equally confused as I am.
“Does the letter change things? Do any of you feel differently?”
I shake my head, slightly annoyed because I know she’s probably been obsessing about this since she read it.
“No, Tesoro. It changes nothing. Jedediah’s words are meaningless, and that marriage isn’t real. It never was. You were a little girl and his daughter. It’s incest. You aren’t his wife. But you will be ours.”
She quickly jumps to a sitting position and tilts her head at me, her eyes wide.
“What did you say?”
My brothers stare at me, their eyes filled with concern, but I’m not worried. We haven’t discussed marriage with her, but she knows none of us will ever let her go. It can’t be a big surprise that we’d want to make it permanent.
